The Stuff of Dreams

Abstract

The solo exhibition at Canary Wharf curated by Ann Elliott comprised two installations ‘Globes of Stuff’ and The Palace of Raw Dreams. Five large, resin globes resting on different axis, scattered around different areas of the floor, like tumbleweeds, made sight lines with each other. All cast from the same mould, a giant ball of wrapped cloth with an accumulation of seemingly random objects haphazardly emerging from various parts of its folds. A key part of the work revolves around the idea of the accumulation of this, reflected by the globes sitting at different angles and so revealing different surfaces as though they have been blown or rolled through the space of the building, creating a sense of movement and relationship to one another as they occupy various locations. ‘The Palace of Raw Dreams’ is a large wooden walkway that supports a rectangular screen made of transparent, amber Perspex. At either side of the structure is a ladder, stairs that seem to provide access to the walkway, although central to the piece is the fact that these cannot be climbed, involving the audience while keeping them at a slight remove. The walkway and its screen create the sense of a set or a stage, albeit one that is perhaps ambiguous or mysterious: seen from without, behind the scenes. The film, like a type of opera, shot in the Antonio Pasqualino Museum in Palermo, Sicily, shows fragmented narratives from varying perspectives including the puppets. The sounds echoed through the lobby of Canada Square. The two installations have in common a sense of both movement and the static, of presence and absence, of making something strange to itself by dislocating or altering it slightly from reality and the world around it: presenting or raising a different point of view from which to see and interpret objects, ideas, and how we might engage with them.